Just Another Faceless Soldier
by Obiwriter341
Summary: A Stormtrooper's point of view of the destruction of the Death Star.


**This is ****just a random plot bunny that came to me while I was watching A NEW HOPE. Enjoy!**

**Wouldn't this all be so much easier if Lucas would just crack and give me Star Wars? I know, right? Unfortunately, he can't see reason. Grrrrr…**

I will die today. In a few short minutes, my body will be incinerated, along with the rest of the Death Star. There will be no funeral, no mourners. It is what I deserve, actually, based on the things I have done.

I have done terrible things in my short lifetime. I've looked on as people were tortured and killed – some as young as fifteen. I've killed, as well. I will always remember my first victim.

He was a young man, maybe twenty five years of age, who had allied himself with the Rebels. I saw the terror in his eyes. I heard his pleas for mercy – pleas that fell upon deaf ears. I aimed my blaster and shot. The bolt hit him straight in the chest, and I saw the life drain out of him. I watched a man die, and I did nothing. A name slipped past his cracked and bloody lips as he departed this world. _Escara. _Maybe she was his wife. Maybe his daughter. I will never know.

In a way, I envy that man, and all the other Rebels who have died. At least they died defending what they believed in. At least they left behind people who loved them, people who missed them after their passing. I will enjoy neither luxury.

You must understand, I never asked for this life. I had no choice in the matter. I was created by the cloners of Kamino. Stormtrooper 558029. That's all I am. I have never known anything of independence or emotion. I have a face, but it is shared by thousands of Stormtroopers. Our face is not seen anyway, as we wear the same white and black body armor, making us completely identical. I share my identity with thousands. Only my number makes me different.

No one asked me if I wanted to kill that man! No one thought to inquire about if I really believe the Empire's cause is just! Do you think my friend, 418620, was asked if he wanted to be sent on what we all knew was a suicide mission to Besbril V? Of course not! We are expendable. Things. Cannon fodder to the First Galactic Empire.

If someone were actually to give me a choice as to what I could do with my life, the first thing I would do is go far away. Find some small, out of the way planet and settle down with a wife. I'd make a living for myself as a modest farmer, helping things to live and grow. Maybe I'd be a father. I'd like that. I could bounce my son on my knee and tell him stories as we sat by the fire after a long day, watching his delighted young face. Now, I can almost imagine the smile he'd give me as he asked for just one more story before he had to go to bed. I'd oblige, and my wife would playfully tease me about how the "cute face," and, "innocent eyes," could sucker me every time.

But now I'm lurched unkindly out of my reverie and back to reality, where beings rush past me, tripping and stumbling to the escape pods. There is no point trying to get into one. There are not _nearly_ enough escape pods for everyone. They will take care of the officials first, and not even all of them will make it off of this doomed space station.

I will hide this data recorder in the lining of one of the pods in the hope that someday, someone will find it. Maybe by then, the Empire will be abolished. That's a nice thought, although highly unrealistic as of the near future.

If you've found this, and the Empire is still in power, as I presume it will be, please, for the sake of a man who did nothing and bitterly regrets it, do what little you can to stop their reign of terror. If, by some miracle, they have been overthrown, take pleasure in your freedom, for there were many who did not have it. Enjoy each new day, each sunrise, for those of us who have seen our last.

If it isn't too much to ask, I would appreciate it if, only every once in a while, you would think of me, Stormtrooper 558029, even though I was just another faceless soldier.


End file.
